Quotations From A.E. (ALFRED EDWARD) HOUSMAN

In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.

A.E. (Alfred Edward) Housman (1859-1936), British poet, classical scholar. Quoted in Prokosch, "The Sneeze," Voices: A Memoir (1983).
Housman asked Prokosch, whose volume The Asiatics had been published to critical acclaim, "Is your air of simplicity just a part of your cunning, or is your cunning just an aspect of your inner simplicity?"